XF 1.2Is there any way to allow duplicate usernames?

Well-known member

On our website, we've asked users to use their real names and everyone seems to be loving it. We've noticed that the overall engagement with the site, after people began using their real name is much higher than it was before.

But now, if there are two people with same names; they've to either use a dot (.) or a dash (-) or an underscore or a space to create different usernames.

Is there any way to allow duplicate usernames? What problems will it create?

XenForo developer

Well they have a unique username field, and a unique e-mail address field - just like XenForo - but then a display name field.

My display name on Facebook might be Chris Deeming, but my username could be chrisdeeming123. And if my username was that, that would have to be unique across all users. As would my e-mail address. But the display name does not have to be unique.

So Paul is right. You'd need a new field in the database which is actually a display name, rather than username. Then you would need code changes to display that instead of their username in various places.

Member

I understand the question has been answered, but I'm desperately curious if there are any updates that I don't know about?
The webmaster/root admin of a forum I'm an active member of wants the option for users to use their real name, so do I honestly.